By Jon Arnold
The Seattle Sounders have two MLS Cup trophies. They have a Concacaf Champions Cup. They have a Supporters’ Shield. They have four U.S. Open Cups. Now, they have a Leagues Cup, too.
The Sounders added the two-bowled trophy to their list of titles with a 3-0 victory over Inter Miami on Sunday night, delighting a tournament-record crowd of 69,314 at Lumen Field.
It was a night in which soccer heritage was on display. This is a team that not only has a decorated history in Major League Soccer but traces its history to before the birth of the league, with A-League titles and multiple NASL runners-up medals.
It is led by a coach in Brian Schmetzer who grew up in Seattle, who played for various past iterations of the Sounders and has been involved in coaching this version of the team since it started. When he signed with the Sounders as a teenager, Schmetzer said he “was doing crazy high school stuff, enjoying my life.” Now, he’s enjoying delivering silverware to his hometown, having won nearly everything there is to win.
Other managers may have entered the trophy with some despair. The Sounders were missing some of their most experienced attackers because of injury, but Schmetzer leaned on the player pipeline the club has developed. Osaze De Rosario, who started the season with MLS NEXT Pro affiliate Tacoma Defiance, nodded in the opener. Schmetzer’s first three changes all spent significant time with the Defiance, as well.
Georgi Minoungou drew a penalty that allowed Alex Roldan to double the lead in the 84th minute. Paul Rothrock, a Sounders academy product who also spent long stretches in Tacoma, scored the final goal.
While the Sounders attack was able to make a difference, its defense may have been the more impressive unit Sunday night.
Anchored by goalkeeper Andrew Thomas, the typical No. 2 who Schmetzer appointed the Leagues Cup goalkeeper when No. 1 Stefan Frei suffered an injury earlier in the summer, the Sounders back line became the first team ever to shut Inter Miami out in a Leagues Cup match.
Alex Roldan, Yeimar, Jackson Ragen and Reid Baker-Whiting, deputizing for the suspended Nouhou, at times bent but never broke. In front of them, Sounders homegrown Obed Vargas and one-club man Cristian Roldan frustrated Inter Miami star Lionel Messi in a way the Argentine rarely is frustrated.
Every time it looked like he would be able to slip past his defender, one of the midfielders would appear next to him to slow his run. Luis Suarez turned creator, with Inter Miami adding attackers and moving Sergio Busquets into the back line to allow Jordi Alba and Ian Fray to get into the attack. The modification paid off until that Roldan penalty, with Rothrock putting a cherry on top of the home win.
“It’s a lot because it’s against one of the best teams in our league, in the world with Messi, the best player in the world, Suarez, so many good players, Alba, Busquets,” Schmetzer told MLS Season Pass after. “It means a lot because that’s a good team that we beat and we beat them decisively.”
The stirring victory in the final capped a comprehensive Leagues Cup run from the Sounders. They were the only team to win all three of their Phase One matches, opening the tournament with an eyebrow-raising 7-0 thrashing of Cruz Azul, a team which had beaten the Sounders on their way to the Concacaf Champions Cup title months before. While the scorelines were less lopsided, the Sounders were no less impressive in the next two matches, earning wins over Santos Laguna and Club Tijuana by 2-1 scorelines.
There was an unexpected speed bump in the quarterfinals, where Puebla was able to fluster the No. 1 seed in a scoreless draw, but Thomas stood out as the hero with a pair of stops in the penalty shootout. Pedro de la Vega and De Rosario scored in the semifinal to push the Sounders past the LA Galaxy and into the final, where they were able to secure their CCC spot.
Soccer lifers like Schmetzer will always look for more. The Sounders didn’t get out of their Club World Cup group this year. They are pushing to win the MLS Cup this season and still have work to do in league play. Thanks to the ticket earned through Leagues Cup, they’ll look to return to the top of the heap in the CCC next year.
For now, however, the Sounders work is done. As veterans Roldan and Frei lifted the Leagues Cup trophy, surrounded by smiling young faces who hope to follow their lead, the team’s future looked just as bright as its decorated history.
